Friday, January 27, 2012

Here’s the latest and most courageous piece of journalism in the new
century from the most courageous journalist – Barkha Dutt. This is a tweet from
the champion of free speech on January 25: “The Buck stops with the government
says @SalmanRushdie to me. Hid in a room & interviewed him via video link
ironically”. Hid in a room? From what? Ghosts in the video link? From spies
disguised as room-boys? This is after her interview with Rushdie once the video
conference with him was finally cancelled on January 24 by the hosts at the
Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF). Nobody knows whether the interview was before
or after the cancellation and it is unlikely you’ll ever find out.

The police and hosts of JLF perceived a threat over the video
participation of Rushdie in the event on the last day of the public event. But
such is the Morongiri of some journos that they think merely interviewing
someone from a hotel room through a videolink is an act of courage. There was
no law against it, no ban, no threat to privacy in the hotel room. Nothing! So
what was this JLF all about? On cancellation of the Rushdie show the organisers
quickly put together another show: “Freedom of speech” at 3.45 pm on January 24.
This was to fill in the time slot for the Rushdie session.

I am not a literary type but I thought some literary geniuses would be
on that show. And indeed they were! You had Shoma Chaudhury and Tarun Tejpal of
Tehelka, the Indian version of NOTW tabloid. You had Javed Akhtar a film screen
writer and lyricist. There was some Salim Engineer of a muslim group and, of
course, there was Rahul Bose, he can be anything and anyone from anywhere you like and for
spice they added Barkha Dutt to the group. Literary geniuses! All of them
discussing freedom of speech! Nothing wrong with that but what were a bunch of
people who wouldn’t be classified under ‘literary’ geniuses under any
circumstance doing there? And all of them were dissing one group or the other
for the fiasco that was the JLF. Fact of the matter is some muslim groups
protested and these courageous folk discussed all groups of Hindus and muslims
to explain what freedom of speech is and the audience finally got educated.

Oh Wait! That’s not all. To add meaning to the stupid exercise Rahul Bose even
read from the literary classic ‘Constitution of India’ thus: "Reasonable
restrictions can be imposed in the interest of public order, security of state,
decency, or morality." I come from a city where time and time again this
rule of law is not upheld. It's a grey area and who decides what is moral and
what is not”? No matter which city one comes from a moron remains a moron. The
only other person who can match such morongiri is Suhel Seth. He suddenly
discovered the glorious muslim culture that has contributed so much to this
nation (elsewhere on TV). I probably don’t understand his context.

Farcical threats by groups and the state are not countered by protected
speeches from a stage by a bunch of pretenders who have the ‘sponsored’ benefit
and luxury of airing silly views. Such threats to freedom require countering by
action. With his decision to abstain from the JLF Rushdie merely exposed
himself and the others as stupid word-mongers at the event. Frankly, a 74-year
old Anna Hazare showed greater courage against threats from the state than
these verbal lint. And who are Shoma, Barkha, Javed, Tejpal and Rahul? All of
them are state-sponsored and honoured propagandists of the govt. It is not
freedom of speech that bothers them it is just that their party was being
pooped by some idiots. I am no literature expert to comment on Rushdie’s
writings but to his credit he did face and survive international death threats
for a long time now. His freedom of movement has also been under constant
threat. None of his protectors on the stage have ever faced such threats and
usually these are the ones who pompously sermonise on freedoms.

There’s another small matter of importance. Rushdie wrote about Islam
and Mohammad as he thought fit when many others wouldn’t have dared. His
account is obviously fictional and he has the literary license of imagination
as well. But what about reporting real events concerning muslims by the very
journalists who talk about freedom? A few months back the entire Indian TV
media blacked out a violent protest by muslims at Jangpura, a locality in
Delhi, over an illegal mosque that was razed under a HC order. The logic was
that the NBA (National Broadcasters Association) had advised a blackout. And
who exactly is the poster boy for the media where all such muslim issues are
concerned? A. Owaisi, the MP from Hyderabad. Now, this man wants a ban on Hindu processions on Ram Navami and has earlier suggested that all Indians must
convert to Islam. The more the media suppresses the wrong doings of the muslim
extremists the more they will be gobbled by this very evil. Every instance of
wrong demands, not condemning terrorist acts and even falling prey to mischief
mongers like Digvijay Singh are treated as small incidents by the media. These
incidents keep churning the very threat of violence that confronted the JLF.
And the media helps to promote the very threat that society faces frequently by either not reporting or condoning it through silence.
It is only when their party at Jaipur was spoiled that they found a deep desire for
freedom of speech.

Javed Akhtar is already a Rajya Sabha member from the Congress. So is his wife Shabana Azmi. Before long, the very journalists named in this post will be queuing up for a RS seat. Can they afford to condemn the very party at whose doorstep their future careers lie? That's the problem with these political aspirants, they cannot afford to confront their paymasters and the masters of their own future. So freedom of speech in general is a very convenient topic to discuss without holding responsible anyone who does suppress it.

Barkha’s mistaken sense of having triumphed over imaginary threats
by interviewing Rushdie by “hiding” in some room is the typical nonsense that idiots and her fans will be impressed with. Sure, try telling Barkha that her
self-aggrandizement was nothing more than ‘morongiri’ you are likely to
be held out another threat of legal action. Unfortunately for India, she isn’t just
one bad apple, there are many such in the Indian media. They are mere frogs
waiting to be boiled.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

I haven’t read any book by Chetan Bhagat for the simple reason that no
one has gifted me any of his books. I have no intention of buying one either. Well,
I’ve made my “position” on the issue clear and I doubt I would bother
reading highly intellectual stuff. That should satisfy Arnab Goswami. “You are either with this absurdity that is
going on or against it”. What’s your position? That is the challenge Justice
Arnab throws up to panelists over the Salman Rushdie issue and many other issues. (What is really wrong with this man?) Somewhere in the
middle of Arnab’s 90 minute Newshour (January 23) on TimesNow Chetan Bhagat
asked the most important question on the show: “Why are lunatics on the
Newshour"? Arnab quickly responded by stating there are no lunatics on the
Newshour, just honourable men and women. Er.. with the exception
of one. And that is Arnab himself. To call him a moderator of debates would be
exceptionally charitable. He out-screams and shuts out every panellist, his
arms fly all over and the number of times he asks someone to “take a position”
I wonder if he wouldn’t be better off discussing the Kama Sutra instead of
the Rushdie issue. It’s hard to blame Arnab alone for being the lunatic. He is one among many loonies in the media. What
Arnab does not appreciate is that the Govt of India has indeed taken a position
on the issue; that of “lunatics”.

Here’s what the TOI writes in an editorial called “Stop the hate” about
religious zealots in Kashmir: “For the past few weeks, a Christian priest and
foreign NGOs have been targeted for seeking to persuade Muslim youth to give up
their faith in return for liquor, women and money. One priest, Pastor Chander
Mani Khanna, had to appear before a sharia court to defend himself against
charges of proselytization ……The state government has remained on the sidelines
when it should have ensured protection to the victims of the hate campaign”.
That’s funny! Since when has concern for victims of hate been a priority for
the Govt? Mind you, the piece talks about frivolous evidence and govt inaction
but it doesn’t wonder why a sharia court is in operation in the first place. Forget
govt protection against religious zealots, what is currently evident is that
the govt itself is the zealot. Also, entities TOI refers to as ‘victims’ in
Kashmir are happily practicing the same trade in many other states in India
where Hindus instead of Muslims are their prey. It is just that other states do
not have sharia courts yet.

From the time the Rushdie controversy erupted the centre and the Rajasthan
govt have kept muslim passions played up and
electoral points are scored in UP and elsewhere. As the final instalment in their plan they
even cooked up stories of paid assassins out to kill Rushdie. The Mumbai police
have even denied the existence of any such plot or assassins. Even if that were
to be true one has to wonder why no suspects were rounded up in the face of
such strong intelligence. Interestingly, dealing with the victim is what
Rushdie explained in his letter to Rajiv Gandhi on his book being banned. Firstpost
has reproduced that letter (excerpts):

“This really is astounding. It is as though, having identified an
innocent person as a likely target for assault by muggers or rapists, you were
to put that person in jail for protection. This is no way, Mr Gandhi, for a
free society to behave ….. I deeply resent my book being used as a political
football; what should matter to you more than my resentment is that you come
out of this looking not only Philistine and anti-democratic but opportunistic.”
Has anything changed since that time in 1988? Nothing! Instead, the zealots in
the govt have only gotten worse in their opportunistic football.

In all of this the biggest and most evil misuse is that of the police
force. It has become another football in the whole episode and will continue to
be misused. Abhinav Kumar, apparently a very disturbed IPS officer, writes
about the police tragedy thus in the DNA:

“What then accounts for this equally remarkable and consistent display
of cowardice by our police forces? Speaking from some experience, all it would
have taken for Rushdie to attend the Jaipur Literature Festival was for a
senior police officer in Jaipur to reassure the organisers and Rushdie of their
support and issue a stern warning to all those threatening violence and take
suitable preventive measures. Instead, we are told the local police leaned on
the organisers to ask Rushdie to stay away and allegedly backed it up by
encouraging rumours of paid assassins being dispatched from Mumbai, something
the Mumbai police denied. What is beyond doubt is that the top leadership of
Rajasthan police preferred to stay silent and the forces of bigotry and
obscurantism had a field day. Ask any senior officer and they have a stock
answer. ‘Our first priority is to maintain law and order.’ Even if it means
turning a blind eye to illegal behaviour by gangs of goons paying lip service
to some extreme ideology on the right or left of the political spectrum, or
promoting some bigoted vision of ethnic pride or religious hatred? What is the
point of maintaining such law and order? Contrast this apathy with the alacrity
with which the police will respond if one tries to shout slogans or show a
black flag at a rally featuring any of our political bigwigs. Regarded as a
major ‘breach of security’ and a grave professional lapse, the offender will be
quickly rounded up and made to feel the full force of the law, often quite
literally while the police officers on duty may well face disciplinary action
for this ‘dereliction’ of duty”. Sure, along with the goons in govt and on TV, the police forces
have also become lunatics.

As of now not only has Salman Rushdie withdrawn from the Jaipur Litfest
but also the video conferencing has been called off by the organisers as the
Rajasthan police once again feared a “law and order” situation. But for the
mullahs in the govt opportunity always knocks twice. This time, American
comedian Jay Leno is the focus of affection. Leno cracks some poor joke about
the ‘Golden Temple’ being a summer house for presidential hopeful Mitt Romney
and our govt wants an apology from him. Comedians in the US lampoon every
politician and every religion and the US First amendment protects their free
speech. It’s nothing new. One can understand Sikhs protesting as a group but
why does it need the govt to interfere? Well, in all the noise about Rushdie,
Muslims and UP elections it is quite easy to forget there are elections in
Punjab too and such an opportunity to stand up for Sikh sentiments is truly a
gift for the govt.

As for the media, in the last stages of the Jaipur event they were
mostly on stage giving political speeches. And why not? Most of their nightly
debates are laced with their own political persuasions and theatre rather than
any concern for real issues. Rajdeep Sardesai tweets: “Sikhs target Jay Leno,
Hindus Husain, Muslims Rushdie. Guess we are 'sensitive' people after all!”
Well, well Rajdeep might like to wonder which one issues regular death threats
though. And here’s the thing about Rajdeep; he conveniently forgets his own
community which Ashok Malik explains in an article “Playing with fire” in the
TOI and I quote: “State sensitivity to street sentiment reached such ridiculous
levels that when Da Vinci Code was released in 2006, Priyaranjan Das Munshi,
then the information and broadcasting minister, held back the film from cinemas
till he had reviewed it in the company of Catholic priests”. That’s the bias that rules the head of
lunatics in the media as well.

There are certain issues that are simply not debatable or negotiable.
But you can trust the media to reduce such issues to a farce through their
mindless debates. Entering India and participating in events by a PIO is
neither debatable nor negotiable. The protesting lunatics were not so visible
on TV screens. But the ones emboldening the govt in suppressing such freedoms
are the lunatics in the media who kill issues with mindless debates.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Come election season and the skillfully engineered controversies surface;
particularly where it concerns the minority community. It has come to such a
pass that people largely do not think of Parsis, Jews, Sikhs or even Christians
as minorities. Minority is now consistently understood to mean ‘muslims’. All
fake arguments by politicians and media in defining minorities any other way
can now be safely flushed down the drain. It practically means muslims! Period!
This syndrome is not unique to India but a universal phenomenon wherever the
muslim population has steadily increased over the years. Naturally, after the
initial announcement of 4.5% quota to muslims in Central jobs, Salman Khurshid
was emboldened to announce a 9% quota if Congress was voted to power in UP.
Although not stated, it would be naïve to believe Khurshid’s statement doesn’t
have the support of his party. Suddenly, in this climate of muslim appeasement
comes a fatwa from Deoband. The mullahs want Salman Rushdie banned from
entering India to attend a literary festival at Jaipur. A well-timed,
well-engineered shot if you like.

So no political party wants to comment on this outrageous fatwa but
instead Salman Khurshid and the Rajasthan CM, Ashok Gehlot, advise Salman
Rushdie to stay from the event. Gehlot, whose cabinet included murder accused,
went on to even state that Rushdie’s visit could create a law and order
situation. And the media? Oh well, instead of condemning the fatwa and the
govt’s inaction goes into another orgy of debates. Yes, sick and mindless
debates on an issue that they should have been strongly protesting. This is
neither about Satanic Verses nor about hurting religious sentiments. First and
last this is an issue of a Person of Indian Origin (PIO) who was born in Bombay
and has the legal right to visit India. This is an individual’s right
guaranteed by our laws which our govt is obliged to protect. The govt is
failing in that obligation and the media is party to the crime.

Typically, A. Owaisi, the MP from AP had to be on the TV debates. He
who recommends all Indians convert to Islam stated: “we are not against
criticism but will not tolerate blasphemy”. It would need Einstein to discover
how criticism of the Quran will not be treated as blasphemy by a mullah in any
country. Such is the nonsense peddled in the media in the garb of debate. And
cleverly the queen of Telly trolls Barkha Dutt states in a tweet: “If this
nonsense controversy keeps @SalmanRushdie away from Jaipur we should all be
ashamed as Indians. The culture of intolerance abhorrent”. Oh really
sweetheart? Instead of directing any
protest or anger at the mullahs of Deoband or other intolerant cowards in the
Congress she wants ‘Indians’ to be ashamed. Think about it every time these ‘sickulars’
find their friends committing horrors they want ‘Indians’ to be ashamed. That
is pretty much like Rahul Gandhi’s silly statement: “I am ashamed to be an
Indian” (At Bhatta Parsaul). Of course, any issue concerning freedom of speech
for the telly trolls would not be complete without raking up M.F.Hussain. The
painter’s works were neither banned, nor was he forced into exile as the media
constantly propagates. He was a fugitive of his own choice.

Contrast this with the United Kingdom where Rushdie lived when the
fatwa on his life was issued after Satanic Verses was released. His adopted
country went all out to protect him and provided him complete security from
would be killers willing to act on the fatwa on his life. That was in the late
80’s. Things have changed since then in the UK too. Since then the UK has also
fallen into the trap of appeasement through failed multiculturalism. Since then
there are now over 85 Sharia courts in the UK. Since then, over 50 churches
have been converted to mosques in the UK by real-estate purchases. Living
conditions and habits of the other residents were forced to be changed due to such
pandering to muslims. There are muslim ghettos where other residents do not
venture often. As for home-grown Islamic terror in UK, that is another topic
altogether.

Three years ago the UK denied entry to Dutch MP Geert Wilders to screen
his movie FITNA in the UK. Fitna is a short documentary on the Quran made by
Wilders quoting verses he claims spread hatred and violence and for which the
Quran should be banned in the Netherlands. He advocated that if Mein Kampf by
Hitler is banned then the Quran should be banned as well. Now, Wilders wasn’t
invited to UK for a private literary festival. He was invited by members of the
House of Lords to screen his documentary in the upper house of the British
parliament. Yet he was denied entry and later allowed only after a court
allowed him to proceed. All signs of an increasingly Sharia-compliant
democratic Britain. Imagine, this is the UK with a much more liberal freedom of
speech and expression which has plumbed to such depths in appeasement of
muslims. That’s a far cry from the days when Rushdie’s freedom was so strongly
protected by the UK. Geert Wilders was
also prosecuted in his home-country of Netherlands for hate-speech and
spreading hatred against muslims but later acquitted. Ring a bell? Well, closer
home there is an attempt to prosecute Dr.
Subramanian Swamy for a strong article against Islamic terrorism. Swamy’s
courses that he taught at Harvard were also cancelled owing to petitions by
vested interests. Oh, should I say Sharia-compliant lobbies? Once again,
instead of strongly standing behind Swamy’s freedom of speech the Indian media
was thoroughly delighted and announced “Harvard snubs Swamy”. It is
increasingly clear that the Indian media doesn’t stand for freedom of speech or
expression but for the ideologies they pursue. Does Indian news media really
stand for freedom of speech? Bluntly, most of them qualify to be in the harem
of some Arab prince with his Persian gloves on.

Okay! Suddenly we have Vinay Rai, a new crusader for protecting
religious sentiments and other mental cavities. He is a journalist with some
remote Urdu publication called ‘Akbari’and covers politics. He has filed a petition in a Delhi court against Google and Facebook.
Let me quote him from WSJ: “The content I have submitted to the court deeply
offends several religions including Hinduism, Islam and Christianity. It
involves pages and groups where users have mocked Hindu gods and goddesses,
Prophet Muhammad and Jesus Christ. Such content can create communal riots
across the country. These are just a few examples…My intention is to ensure
that the sentiments of any religion or community are not hurt”. Well, religions
of the world must be so frail and fallible that it takes the Vinay Rais of the
world to protect them and people’s sensitivities. In response to his petition
the Delhi court even told the ISPs: “…if immediate steps were not taken, the
websites would be blocked the way it happened in China”. We're used to a lot of Chinese goods, now our courts will deliver China-style bans too. Of course, our freedom
loving UPA has approved the prosecution of Google and Facebook. And yes, it
calls for another round of TV debates.

This time around you have Vinod Sharma of Hindustan Times referring to
some video of Pakistan PM Gilani and Sherry Rehman on Youtube which according
to him is tasteless and abusive. Well, maybe tasteless to him but it’s a silly
incident, maybe unintentional, but the video has been viewed by over 2.5
million people. I guess all of those people must be idiots according to our
media. People, out of curiosity, watch content and move on and not crib like
politicians or journalists. And the panelists recommend a concept called “Self-censorship”.
Laugh if you will, but that’s true. Why self-censorship for putting up stuff on
the internet? People are smart enough to know what to access on the net and
that freedom to choose is also self-regulation. I have serious doubts if Vinay
Rai gives a damn about Hindu or Christian sentiments and the nature of his
journal suggests he might have received mostly complaints from muslims, if any
at all. And in cases like these there are usually far bigger powers that seek
to score a larger political goal as censorship. Why wouldn't Sibal be willing?

Slowly but surely the govt seems bent on
making everything sharia compliant. The sheer size of abuse our media hurls on
Hindus and Hinduism is testimony to the fact that Hindus don’t get offended too
easily. The only ones that do are muslims and appeasing them by being sharia
compliant is the best way for the Congress and much of our news media. Sharia
is already practiced in Kashmir but there is backdoor sharia through the
Congress and media in the rest of India as well.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

The following lines from the movie ‘The American President’ are some of
my most favourite when it comes to describing gullible people:

An aide remarks in very harsh terms: “…Mr. President, and in the absence of genuine
leadership, they'll listen to anyone who steps up to the microphone. They want
leadership. They're so thirsty for it they'll crawl through the desert toward a
mirage, and when they discover there's no water, they'll drink the sand”. To
which the President responds: “We've had presidents who were beloved, who
couldn't find a coherent sentence with two hands and a flashlight. People don't
drink the sand because they're thirsty. They drink the sand because they don't
know the difference”.

Justice Markandeya Katju, the PCI chief, had remarked that 90% of
people in India are backward, lack education and it’s the media’s job to bring
up the right issues. That is really tall expectations from a media that
relishes the backwardness of people as much as politicians do, none more so
than Rahul Gandhi the latest troubadour from the dynasty. P. Chidambaram, the
man in a cess pool of troubles, remarked sometime back that when RG spoke “he
brought back memories of a young Rajiv Gandhi”. Why not? After all, since his
early promise Rajiv Gandhi had turned out to be as much a gas bag and mired in
scandals except for his dreams for India. Rahul Gandhi shares his penchant for
dreams – a dream Lokpal, a dream of uniting two Indias, a dream of this and a
dream of that. Not everyone is lucky to have so many wet dreams. In all his
utterances I have yet to see one piece of intelligence on any issue. Unless, of
course, you missed his comic genius. It all began on November 14, when RG
started his election campaign in UP. Let’s sample some of his utterances:

1.At all rallies: “There is a magic elephant in
Lucknow that eats up all the funds provided by Congress”.

2.At Deoband: “I am blind to caste and religion. I
see everyone as Hindustani... If one Hindustani tries to harm another, I
promise I will come in between. Please remember that I am the grandson of
Indira Gandhi”. Which is why he will promote reservations for minorities and
ask why others didn’t do it so far!

3.On the Babu Singh Kushwaha issue: "We
refused to induct any corrupt politicians in the party". Why would he?
Aren’t there enough in his own party?

4.On Lokpal Bill: "They(BJP leaders) were
smiling in the Lok Sabha and said Lokpal is not their dream but ours--Manmohan
Singhji, Rahul Gandhiji and Sonia Gandhiji's. "I agree. A strong Lokpal is
our dream. Just wait and watch, we will bring a Constitutional Lokpal and
defeat them". Maybe he forgot he is in the ruling party, with allies!

5.At Balia: "Mulayam Singh once said to me
that 'do whatever you want, the Muslims will only vote for me.' If you have the
courage put a promise of 18 percent reservation in your manifesto'.

"Mulayam has been the CM thrice
and Mayawati four times. But not once they spoke about reservation (for
Muslims) when they were chief ministers, not once did they mention
reservation”.

6.Everywhere: “..But today your leaders don't come
to you but fly on helicopters. . And until they understand the sufferings of
the people the state cannot progress”.

7."They won't talk to you. They won't come
amidst you. They won't shake hands with you. They won't come to your house or
have food. They will not drink water from your well. They sit in AC rooms. They
won't talk about farmers… And when I come to your houses, have your food, I am
ridiculed. They ask what happened to Rahul Gandhi. I see strength in you, in
rural villages”.

8."UPiites have built roads in Maharashtra,
they work in Kerala, they help the farmers in Punjab...but they do not have
roads, electricity or water in their villages. Who built the Delhi Metro? Who
is working in Ladakh?”

9.You sell your potatoes for Re.1 a Kg. but potato
chips are sold for Rs.20/- a packet.

10.The best of them all: For how long will you beg
in Maharashtra or work as labourers in Punjab? When asked if he meant it
metaphorically RG went on to say that he really meant “beggars” and he also
found most of the beggars in Delhi were from UP.

And I am not going to even talk about RG’s previous gems like “Politics
is in your pants” or “99% terror averted”. Well, it will surely be criminal of
me if I left out “Mao brought development to China”!

Not surprisingly only some in the media have just about woken up to
this man with no knowledge, intelligence or any understanding of the nation
whatsoever. Imagine, an intellectual like Pratap Bhanu Mehta actually wrote to
RG about “Tomorrow’s responsibilities”. Bravo! Much of the real discovery of RG
started only after the November 14 Phulpur rally and his “beggar” comment for
the media, at least some of them. TOI reports ‘Terai shocker for Rahul Gandhi’.
WSJ: ‘More Signs of Rahul Gandhi’s Populism’. M.D. Nalapat: ‘Past is Rahul future in UP’. Venky Vembu: ‘Rahul Gandhi, the gawky, poor little ‘Richie Rich’
politician’. Swapan Dasgupta: “A look at the man who would be India’s King”.
The list could go on and on. But I wonder why so many in the mainstream media
couldn’t see the comedian for what he is all these years.

The one pic RG wouldnt want farmers or beggars to see

So much for discovering Rahul Gandhi! One has to wonder why it took so
long for some in the media to write about the comic genius of RG. It is really hard to argue with anything he says
simply because it’s all so profound. Of course, if you have a hard time
understanding the sense behind what he says there’s always a battery of
Congress spokespersons ready to explain what exactly he meant. They’re not the
only one though. NDTV seems to be the only channel that seems to know all of
RG’s travel plans. From travelling on the metro to sudden and secret visits to
UP or elsewhere and even his considered views on FDI in retail. Oh, that’s
another beauty. The retail-FDI plan got dumped by parliament but RG believe
that policy would have been heaven-sent for farmers. So once again he managed
to explain that to farmers. And today, January 11, he handed a box of
chocolates to a young muslim kid as a token of the sign that Congress will
deliver for the muslims. Didn’t mom tell the kid in a movie that “Life is like
a box of chocolates, you never know what you’ll get”? I guess if that served
Gump well, it should do the same for others too.

UP - A Muslim Labarotory

In all the days of his campaign RG has not once been able to outline
what his programmes are or what he and his party would do for the state he is
campaigning in. Nothing! So in absence of any substance he falls back upon the
old and trusted methods instituted by his parents, grandparents and great
grandparents; subsidies, doles and, of course, quotas. And from the old school
book of Indira Gandhi he even digs out the “Garibi Hatao” slogan. Not having
drawn good crowds in many places he now campaigns exclusively in UP towns where
muslims are a majority. His cronies desperately try to prove him right in everything
he says, like the “game changer” plan but even that came a cropper in
parliament. The best part of the whole show is the media which now discusses
the ‘minority’ quota as an issue as against the evil of ‘quota’ itself.

The
other trick that he’s learnt from his family is ‘dressing up’, particularly
with hats, skull caps with minorities and tribals, something his grandmother
excelled in and yet remains a man unwilling to take up any responsibility
whatsoever. I am reminded of Govinda in the movie 'Raja Babu', in which he liked taking his pictures in all kinds of costumes of dresses while being a village bumpkin. Along with Digvijay and Khurshid, RG has now turned Uttar Pradesh into a 'Muslim Laboratory'.

Thanks to the Congress policies minorities have come to mean just ‘muslims’
and their demands get more and more outrageous with time. The latest report
says a group of muslims burnt an effigy of RG at Azamgarh. This is the town
that RG’s mentor Digvijay visited to assure families of those killed in the
Batla House encounter would be delivered justice. A professor from the localcollege of the town says: “He
(Digvijaya) had come here two years ago and promised a judicial inquiry, but
changed his statement while talking to the media outside the village. The
Congress talks of minority reservation, but we are not fools... We are not the
only minority..” What the report doesn’t say is that the statement implies the
muslims probably want to be recognised as a ‘separate minority’ and not clubbed
with all minorities.

Rahul Gandhi's comedy in May 2011 with the ashes and dead bodies has been chronicled under #RahulFacts and his November 14 stupidity chronicled under #YoRahulSoDumb. (Both compiled by @KiranKS). The messages are indicators enough to establish him as the new Laloo.

Atanu Dey, a seasoned observer of Indian issues, sums up RG pretty neatly in a post: “Rahul Gandhi has the
“ticket” to become the prime minister. His accomplishment can be summarized in
two words: lucky sperm. Other than
that, hardly anything else qualifies him — not education, not deep insight, not
intelligence (an area he is noted to be particularly lacking in), not some
breathtaking deed, . . . To not put too fine a point on it, his accomplishments
amount to zilch, zero, shunya, nada. It’s his identity as the great grandson of
Nehru, the grandson of Indira Gandhi nee Nehru, the son of Rajiv Gandhi &
the Italian mama Antonia Maino aka Sonia Gandhi, that totally sums him up and
explains his appeal to a significant number of Indian voters”. They drink the
sand, because they cannot tell the difference.

That’s right, “lucky sperm”
is the only explanation one can have for a bimbo who believes it’s
prime-minister or nothing. I gave up understanding RG long ago and dedicated a
song to him: “What a fool believes, wise man doesn’t bother to reason away” and
now I just sit back and have a good laugh at the jokes he cracks. Stand-up
comedy has become popular on TV only in the last few years with a lot of those
laughter shows. You don’t need a special show when RG starts talking or rolling
up his sleeves after every sentence. The King of comedy has truly arrived.

Sunday, January 8, 2012

There cannot be anything bad about a sporting event. Win strongly or
lose badly sporting events are always good unless tainted by drugs, fixing or
outright cheating. It’s only the screaming headlines in the media that often
make it out to be more than sports. Coupled with silly headlines are the
endless and mindless discussions on TV channels about Cricket. For a long time
all cricket matches are telecast live and yet on a daily basis there are at
least 2 hours of mental masturbation on cricket on every channel. A hyper anchor
with a bunch of ex-cricketers is typically bad news for any sensible discussion
about a test match or a series. Recent tag lines are “India’s thunder down
under” … “India’s best chance to beat Australia” and the less said about Sachin Tendulkar’s
hundredth 100 the better.

Headlines Today, of course, out-does every other
channel in preparation of Sachin’s hundredth with a half hour montage of
all his centuries that is telecast about a hundred times a week. Sachin’s 100
can come when it has to but what exposes the idiots in the box is the manner in
which India has gone down in the two tests to Australia in the current series.
The second loss at SCG was even worse than in the first test. Well, all this is
after the media had predicted this was India’s best chance to beat the Aussies.
That also makes it six test losses in a row abroad. And it’s not over yet! Virat Kohli was unnecessarily fined for his gesture. I do believe his middle finger was directed clearly at the media or should have been.

If you heard the experts on the TV channels before the series started
all that India should have done was to enter the field and Australia would have
folded up. It’s just one more lesson that whatever the media hypes, expect the
opposite to happen. That’s true not just for cricket, but for every event and
entity that the media hypes up. It helps if the spurious campaign is launched
by a foreigner from the opposing camp himself. Listen to Ian Chappell: "It is India's best chance to beat
Australia in Australia. The Aussies have been inconsistent and there have been
unbelievable number of injuries….” And the Indian parrots are thrilled!

Cricknext (December 12)
headlined this report: “It's our best chance to beat Australia: Dhoni” “Even last time we had a very good
chance and we did perform well. It is not like that the opposition is not doing
well (but) it will be the best chance for us.." Dhoni said what he did
with minor mention of the opposition but as captain of the team he is not
expected to be pessimistic. But the headline of the article should explain the
mindless hype from the media. The growth of cricket following had increased
dramatically in India following the 1983 world cup win. Even that was a lucky
escape from an extremely over-confident and arrogant West Indies.

Here’s another one from Deccan Chronicle: “India in with historic chance of beating Aussies at home”. That’s another issue with the media. Every
50, every 100, every match win, every series win is a “Historic” win! The term
is abused so much that it loses meaning every day just as media analysis has
proven to be history. Add to this the crazy rating game over teams. No1., No.2
blah, blah.. without realising it’s stupid to even make sense of any rating in
a game played between 7 or 8 regular teams. That apart, the rating doesn’t
count for anything in any tournament. Worse than seeing India lose a match is
this mindless reasoning for losses. The only sensible one seems to be Kapil Dev
who, in his usual down to earth style, states: “you lost because you played
badly, that’s all” and that there can’t be any better reason. In the TV
discussions and newspapers you are unlikely to find any new insight or
intelligence on the game that you can’t find at your local corner shop discussion.

Over 3 decades ago when the Pakistan team toured India for the first
time in ages Sunil Gavaskar, the
captain, stated “they will smash us to
pulp”. This is after the beating
India took when they toured Pakistan earlier in 1978. This blog describes the situation well. Apart from spreading
pessimism in the media Gavaskar must have also lowered expectations from the
public. The end result? India beat Pakistan 2-1 in that series in 1979. In 2011
the hype about India centred around the last chance for Sachin to win a world
cup title and less on the team itself. India won the world cup, in contrast to
2003 and 2007 when the media almost concluded a certain victory much before the
tournament began. The exit in the very first round in 2007 had provided some
learning for the media only to forget it quite quickly.

Here’s the best of the whole lot from a discussion on CNN-IBN by their
sports anchor Gaurav Kalra with Harsha Bhogle and Sanjay Manjrekar. Kalra sets
the tone by a leading question that already under-estimates Australia:

Kalra: Is this India’s best chance to win a series in Australia?

Bhogle: It’s 20 years since I first went to Australia and I can’t think
of a better time…this time there is fear in the enemy camp … Australia is not
the side they were…

Manjrekar: Australia is at its most vulnerable.. I expect Indian
batting to be a stronger lot..

Manjrekar, of course, added the usual ifs and buts. But every channel
and almost every newspaper got the whole shit dead wrong. That’s what
happens each and every time the media hypes up something – the opposite
results. Anyone who is considered an expert would have to be exceptionally
stupid to have not learnt anything from India’s recent tour of England. So you
might wonder why all the excessive theories of an Indian series win. Well, bad
news makes headlines, but good news gets a lot more sponsors I suppose.

India has been beaten six tests in a row abroad. Well, that shouldn’t dishearten
us at all from a sporting angle. Chances are we might be beaten in the next
test as well. So what? After all, after
his first win over Jimmy Connors didn’t the great Vitas Gerulaitis say: “And
let that be a lesson to you all. Nobody beats Vitas Gerulaitis 17 times in a
row".

Friday, January 6, 2012

The Police chief of Andhra Pradesh makes an off the cuff remark about
women’s dresses tempting rapes and that sets off a half hour discussion on
CNN-IBN with none other than Sagarika Ghose (FTN January 5). That police chief
received enough ridicule for his silly comments but it was enough cause for
moraliser Ghose and a bunch of panelists to go on and on about Sheila, Munni,
Dirty Picture, Vidya Balan, Red sarees… the whole lot. And, of course, the
program is called ‘Face the nation’. There’s nothing like this to distract from
every other issue of the day of any real consequence for the nation. Well
nothing, unless it has something to do with an immoral deed by the BJP or an
opposition party to the Congress. So, for the last two days most news channels
have scavenged on the issue of Babu Singh Kushwaha being admitted to BJP after
being sacked by BSP in Uttar Pradesh. Kushwaha was sacked from the BSP for
alleged corruption and the very day after he joined BJP was raided by the CBI.
Talk about timing! And the question three channels; NDTV, TimesNow and CNN-IBN,
were asking was if BJP has lost the ‘moral ground’ on corruption.
Alternately, they were also suggesting BJP had scored a ‘self-goal’.

What the media masks is the fact that the induction of Kushwaha into
BJP received a lot of criticism from within the BJP itself, as also the RSS.
Can you imagine that happening in the Congress or other party? Quite recently,
Ajit Singh of RLD allied with the Congress for UP elections and was rewarded
with a cabinet berth. The media merely glossed over this event as an ‘alliance’.
Far from it! Ajit Singh is one of the most immoral power hunters. He has been
with every party – Congress, BJP, BSP, SP, Janata Party and any other party you
can name, just to be in power. That is within the moral standards of the media.

This is a tweet I sent out on December 20: “Nidhi Razdan:"There is
nothing proved in a court of law against Chidambaram." Ooooh.. but when it
comes to Modi... courts are not even needed”. Isn’t that nice? Kushwaha has
been accused of corruption and the CBI has timed its raid to perfection. What
about P. Chidambaram? The list of accusations against him now reads like a ‘troll
of honour’. It starts with 2G Scam, then CWG scam, the vicious attack on
Ramlila grounds leading to death of a woman, illegal arrest and detention of
Anna Hazare, conflict of interest in covertly quashing an FIR against one of
his clients. PC is also accused of having received huge amounts of bribes under
the 2G scam. But no, for the media Chidambaram is an honourable man, especially
for NDTV.PC doesn’t even need lawyers.
The folks at NDTV do a good job of defending him where he happens to be a
darling. And yes, the comparison to Narendra Modi is inescapable. The man is
guilty a thousand times over of murder, genocide, communalism, polarisation
when there isn’t a single FIR against him and no court has pronounced him
guilty. These very channels hosted a rogue cop, Sanjiv Bhatt, as a great hero
and whistle blower and replayed his calling Narendra Modi a “common criminal”
over and over again. I guess that is within the ‘moraldom’ of media! I wouldn’t
be exaggerating if I were to call Nidhi Razdan a journalistic bimbo, but she
just follows the editorial policies and moral pursuits of NDTV.

Expectedly, Sanjiv Bhatt is now mired in a host of cases against him
and the skulls and bones from his closet are tumbling out. Top Cop! Whistle
Blower! Real-life hero (according to media Mulla Mahesh Bhatt, another darling
of media) and a fighter for justice. The news channels, of course, are
completely and shamefully silent on the truth about Bhatt. These stunning
revelations come from none other than the wily old legal fox Ram Jethmalani:
(From The Sunday Guardian, quotes are in
blue):

“On 18 May he (Bhatt) sends a mail to Nasir Chhipa, who is supposed to
be close to the Congress party, telling him, "I was told by Ms. Shabnam
Hashmi (Senior Hate Engineer) that Home Minister P. Chidambaram can be
influenced by pressure groups in the US. All appeals for the safety of
witnesses, including myself, have not received the desired response from PC.
You may have to work a little on this aspect...." (Mr Chidambaram, kindly
note what the IPS officer you recently praised for insubordination thinks of
you.)” To state that whatever
Chidambaram touches or wherever his name crops up stinks would be an
understatement. Well, did I miss the report on NDTV? That would be immoral for
them to report. Never mind! Jethmalani further adds:

"When Shubhranshu Chaudhary (a journalist) shows reluctance to give
media hype to his affidavit, the petitioner writes to him advising use of the
media, and asks whether Chaudhary is more comfortable with Arnab Goswami or
Rajdeep Sardesai? When Chaudhary's reluctance still persists, Bhatt writes to
him, "My feeling is that we could let the press sniff it out and contact
you. It will not only make a good story for them, but, make the print media to
take notice of your affidavit and finally force the hand of amicus and Supreme
Court to take notice and subsequent affirmative action... "I think we
should play the media card and make it difficult for the other side. If you
fear that amicus and Supreme Court will not take it seriously then media trick
can be tried. I will be speaking with
Rajdeep Sardesai tomorrow I will drop a line to him and let him follow up the
lead." On 19 May, Bhatt emails Rajdeep Sardesai of CNN-IBN, telling
him that he has information that a senior journalist has "filed an
affidavit in the Supreme Court on 16th May, saying that he was with me when I
had to leave for CM's meeting on 27-02-2002... Kindly confirm through your
sources in Supreme Court..."

Rajdeep Sardesai, the man that heads the ‘whatever it takes and most
awarded’ channel seems to be the favourite conduit for sewage of this top cop.
Arnab Goswami is named like a guinea pig who can be tested. Not surprisingly,
both Arnab Goswami and Rajdeep Sardesai were the first ones to interview Bhatt
after his bail out last October. And both unfailingly played his “common
criminal” comment about Narendra Modi a million times. Very high moral
standards indeed!

On the very day that these news channels were trashing the Kushwaha
incident there was another news report that was buried in pages on the internet
and news print. Not one mention, yes not one mention about an honourable mayor
called Majid Hussain. He’s the new mayor of Hyderabad and has nothing less than
seven cases against him. These seven cases include an attempt to murder,
criminal assault and intimidation. Did we see that on any channel? At least I
did not. Knowing the TV channels these cases are well within their moral
standards. After all, since Barkha Dutt set up extraordinary moral and ethical standards
in Radiagate we are now used to journalists even being involved in murder.

The recent announcement of investments by Reliance in the TV18 group is
more bad news for viewers. The corporatisation of news will now be complete. If
people were wondering why news channels more or less blacked out the KG Basic
scam while making noises about the aviation scam a few months back, this explains.
Nothing wrong in principle with the investment by Reliance except that our news
channels will have more paymasters than before. Liquor and tobacco ads are
banned in the media. But surrogate advertising has the liquor brands in your
face all day long. Is that disturbing? Not at all, our news vendors and especially
some anchors have been surrogate mothers for political causes, paid news and
plants. NDTV is now famous for lobbying. Apart from the Radiagate episode many
will remember NDTV campaigned for a Bharat Ratna award for M.F. Hussain which
was silenced by strong protests from Hindus. Hmmm! But that didn’t stop them from
lobbying for N.R. Narayanamurthy for President. NRN was earlier a director on
the board of NDTV and as much a darling as Chidambaram. The Hoot is an e-magazine that often speaks the truth on
media matters but also pulls pages without any reason. This piece about NDTV from The Hoot (August 2011) quoted by Techgirl makes interesting reading (Thanks to a commenter on this blog):

“The same channel also was orchestrating the candidature of one of
their Directors for the post of President of India some time back. The person
may be iconic and of impeccable credentials, but the channel still needs to let
the public know of his particular relationship with it. Incidentally, no other
channel was plugging for him so hard.
One wonders how many viewers were aware of this when they were asked to
vote on the campaign. While one is deeply appreciative of the commonsense of
the person on the street in not falling for such campaigns, nevertheless the
overall ethical issue remains. Think what would be said of Doordarshan if it
ran an orchestrated campaign to promote one of the eminent directors on its
board of governors! Such influence peddling would be unethical journalism by
any standards”.

The Kushwaha incident is not going to pass away soon in the media. Back
in 2009 the media went to town with the doctored videos of hate speeches by
Varun Gandhi, a BJP member. Throughout that election season the Varun tapes
were played out to cause damage to a particular political party. This time
around, elections in UP and other states are great motivators for trumpeting
morality in politics. The corrupt crooks behind the mask on your TV channels
will be there to talk about it.